The new, one-story 7,085 sq. ft. shelter is a state-of-the-art facility comprised of open office, cage-free cat areas, adoption areas, and support spaces. It is organized around a central landscaped courtyard for maximum daylight and access for all shelter uses—visually and physically—to nature. It features low-VOC, recycled and regional content finishes, high-albedo paving and roofing, and native landscaping. It also boasts a very thorough and well-designed list of energy-saving and energy-producing features through the careful integration of building systems.

The building HVAC system consists of ground-source packaged heat pumps tied to a 14 bore-hole ground loop. Ventilation is provided through a roof mounted, fixed-plate ERV ducted to the ground source heat pumps. Per the ventilation requirements, the cat spaces are kept at a negative pressure relative to the rest of the building, and the exhaust from the cat rooms is sent through the ERV for energy recovery. The fixed plate exchanger in the ERV prevents cross contamination between the exhaust air and ventilation air. CO2 sensors monitor CO2 concentration in the people-space breathing zone and modulates the outside air intake. Electric unit heaters provide supplemental heat, and roof-mounted exhaust fans provide exhaust for the toilets. Energy-efficient fluorescent and LED lighting is used throughout the space, with day-lighting controls to reduce energy consumption. A net metered, 30.53 kW roof-mounted photovoltaic system consisting of 96,318-watt modules helps ensure the net zero energy goal of the project.